But one thing you won't see is perhaps the most familiar of all "Star Wars" tropes. And its absence will be noticed immediately.

"Because we originally developed this as a TV series, George [Lucas] felt that the crawl wasn't going to be effective as a way to introduce the audience to the TV series," director Dave Filoni said of the 'Star Wars' crawl, the distinctive prologue which has begun every single feature adventure so far. "He wanted it to be faster and he wanted to do it visually."

"We kind of borrowed from old serials that would have like the little circular wipes and show you what Flash Gordon was up to the last time you were at the theater and we did it in a more traditional sense," Filoni said of the change. "The narration also is kind of a nod to old newsreel footage that you could see during a war, where they would update you on where the allies were at and their battle against the axis."

But more than anything, Filoni said, it was a chance to clue an audience into thinking that this wasn't your father's "Star Wars"...even though it kind of is.

"It was an attempt to say to the audience, 'This is animated but it's different in a couple more ways than that,'" Filoni said. "It's going to be a new experience even though its involved with the characters you know and love."